Manchester City's preseason has come to a close a week away from the Premier League opener, and the Citizens ended their preparations with a frustrating 3-2 loss to Arsenal, with goals from Sergio Agüero and Kelechi Iheanacho, while Alex Iwobi, Theo Walcott and Chuba Akpom scored for Arsenal. An entertaining match between two of the top teams in England finished with a comeback win for the Gunners, and a clearly frustrated Pep Guardiola has a lot of work to do with his squad as we inch closer to the start of the season.
FIRST HALF
The game was balanced since the start, with both teams using possession well to create chances, and showing some intensity with the marking to get the ball back. City had plenty of trouble trying to play out from the back, and Willy Caballero was especially poor with his distribution, which led to some dangerous chances from the Gunners. But once the Citizens started passing better, they looked great with the ball, and Agüero began to find spaces for himself.
And after a nice buildup play, Raheem Sterling turned, beat Nacho Monreal and delivered a fantastic cross to Kun, who easily scored the first. Immediately following the goal, the Sky Blues looked dominant, and we even saw some Tiki Taka in midfield for the first time since Pep took over. Arsenal had some chances at the end of the half, but weren't good enough to equalize.
At halftime, a nice performance and a deserved lead for the Citizens.
SECOND HALF
Arsenal came back with real purpose and pressed City, looking to get the ball back and quickly counter looking for a goal. That happened when Hector Bellerín stole a ball, found Theo Walcott on the run, and the winger found Alex Iwobi in a great position to score, and he didn't miss it, easily placing the ball far away from Joe Hart's reach into the bottom corner for the equalizer.
Guardiola made changes, but City continued to play poorly on defense and Walcott took advantage of the positioning mistakes from the backline, combining with Alexis Sánchez and chipping the ball over Hart for the second goal. Another wasted possession by City, and the ball eventually fell to Chuba Akpom for Arsenal's third.
City tried to come back when Jesus Navas gave a nice cross to Kelechi Iheanacho, who easily finished with a nice header to score the Citzens' second goal. The Blues went forward in search of the equalizer and came very close with Touré and Navas, but couldn't find it.
In the end, a promising performance in the first half, a disappointing one in the final period, and plenty of corrections to be made by the manager. Good thing the season is only a week away, then.
Man City: Caballero (Hart) | Zabaleta (Sagna), Fernando (Adarabioyo), Kolarov, Clichy (Angeliño) | Fernandinho (García), Silva (De Bruyne), Delph (Touré) | Sterling (Zinchenko), Agüero (Iheanacho), Nolito (Navas)
Goal: Agüero (30'), Iheanacho (87')
Arsenal: Cech | Bellerín (Debuchy), Gabriel, Holding (Chambers), Monreal (Gibbs) | Coquelin, Xhaka (Elneny) | Chamberlain (Walcott), Ramsey (Cazorla), Iwoby (Campbell) | Alexis (Akpom)
Goals: Iwobi (50'), Walcott (72'), Akpom (85')